Quick Take: Deadliest Warrior, “United States Army Rangers vs. North Korean Special Operations Forces”What if there was a WWIII and it happened today?

Review: Deadliest Warrior, “United States Army Rangers vs. North Korean Special Operations Forces”(S0303) The special live episode of Deadliest Warrior boasted their first ever “anticipatory” match, staging the battle between the U.S. Army Rangers and the North Korean Spec. Ops along the Korean Peninsula as a “possible World War III” scenario. As two active forces in the world today, this episode presented an intriguing head-to-head challenge with the promise of a particularly bloody massacre of ballistic dummies and pig carcasses. The live quips during the first hour of the show didn’t add much to the standard spectacle that plays out every week, though viewers were rewarded with a special guest for the Army Rangers, Strikeforce fighter and combst vet, SSGT Tim Kennedy. The hosts certainly delivered in the full half-hour live portion, however, answering questions from Twitter, and offering supplementary and clarifying commentary to what didn’t make it past the cutting room floor. In preparation for next week’s episode featuring Saddam Hussein vs. Pol Pot, viewers were also treated to an interview with Steve Russell, one of the men responsible for tracking and bringing Saddam Hussein to justice.

The first weapons tested were the teams’ sniper rifles, utilized in a long-range test that timed the trained army vets’ ability to spot and neutralize six hostile targets, including a counter-sniper. The Army Rangers proved deadliest in this scuffle, executing the targets faster with their larger clip. They also proved to be the messiest, wielding a force worthy of ripping through their foes with a greater carrying force. The North Koreans rallied back with their assault rifles, however, showing the AKM to be the M4’s more accurate superior. Though both teams ran their course in thirty seconds, the Koreans finished with rounds to spare, while demonstrating their discipline in affirming their targets’ identities.

The new season of Deadliest Warrior now includes an X-Factor analysis, taking into consideration various elements of battle such as psychological warfare, environmental conditions, extremism, and hand-to-hand combat. Each militia proved their capacity for both offensive and defensive hand-to-hand combat manoeuvres to be equally effective and fatal, earning mixed reactions from the hosts and analysts. The Rangers were soon back on top, however, carried by the blast of their Claymore Mine, which proved to have a wider kill radius than the North Koreans’ Box Mine.

Another new element of the new season of Deadliest Warrior is the extended battle simulation – not only do the historic leaders who are imaginatively pitted against each other have forces to command, but the battle tests are run a staggering five thousand times. With the addition of each teams’ battlefield tactics, leadership styles, and other X-Factor qualities, weapon efficiency and proficiency can easily become overwhelmed, as proven in last week’s fight between Joan of Arc and William the Conqueror. The simulation between the Rangers and the North Koreans resulted in the closest matchup in Deadliest Warrior history. With only eight wins separating them, the U.S. Army Rangers emerged victorious over the North Korean Spec. Ops, 2504-2496.

I’ve definitely been enjoying where the new season is heading: the simulations are more reliable, the analysis more in-depth, and the hosts bring more wisdom and experience to their commentary, which is as equally enthusiastic as it has been in the past two seasons. I can’t say I’m surprised that the Americans won – while the show claims to be impartial, could it really have turned out any other way? It was much the same with the C.I.A. and George Washington, who were both victorious in their respective episodes. Altogether, the Rangers did put on the more impressive display, though the Koreans could have easily emerged victorious after more tests.

If the impact of last night’s finale of the Walking Dead was at all diminished by the quality of season premieres it went up against, I’d hate to see how it would have matched up against those same shows’ finales.

While the spector of WWIII is obviously scary, this does sound very cool, Mark. I read a lot of military scenario-type novels when I was a kid during the '80s and lo and behold, conflict on the Korean penninsula was often involved. Amazing really that the Korean War is technically still ongoing !